Recent years have seen considerable growth in extreme contexts research, with a focus on understanding the nature of management practices in unusual or atypical work environments. While significant attention has been paid to organisational responses in these contexts, the responses of individuals have often been overlooked. Using affective events theory, our research investigates the impact of exposure to extreme events on safety performance in extreme contexts of firefighting and shipping. In Study 1, based on time-lagged data from 302 firefighters, we find that exposure to high extreme events indirectly reduces safety performance through a micro-foundational process. Specifically, exposure to high extreme events heightens negative emotions, which, in turn, diminishes work engagement and, consequently, leads to a decline in safety performance. These findings are replicated in Study 2, using time-lagged data from 316 ship officers. Study 2 also reports the important role of self-emotion appraisal as a boundary condition for hypothesised relationships. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.
